Application Reporting in an Application-Selectable User Interface

ABSTRACT

This document describes techniques for application reporting in an application-selectable user interface. These techniques permit a user to view reports for applications in a user interface through which these applications may be selected. By so doing, a user may quickly and easily determine which applications to select based on their respective reports and then select them or their content through the user interface.

PRIORITY APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/109,779 filed Dec. 17, 2013, which is acontinuation of, and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/978,184 filed Dec. 23, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporatedby reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Conventional operating systems permit users to launch applications,often through a user interface having selectable icons for theapplications. In some cases a user selects to launch an application fromthis user interface and does not care whether there is anything new forthat application.

In many cases, however, users launch applications to find out what isnew in those applications. A user wishing to find out what is new in herapplications, for example, typically selects an icon for a desiredapplication, in response to which the conventional operating systemlaunches the application. This application then opens and, assuming itis one that presents content, presents that content. For someapplications, such as news or social-networking websites, theapplication retrieves content from a remote source and then presentsthat content. It is at this point that the user sees the content, whichmay or may not be new since the last time the user viewed content forthat application.

The user may continue this process of selecting applications, inresponse to which they are launched and present content, and thenviewing the presented content to find out what, if anything, is new.Following this process will permit a user to see what is new in herapplications, but doing so takes significant amounts of time and effort.This process also expends computing and bandwidth resources. Worsestill, in some cases her applications may not have any new content, inwhich case all of this time, effort, and resources are wasted.

SUMMARY

This document describes techniques for application reporting in anapplication-selectable user interface. These techniques permit a user toview reports for applications in a user interface through which theseapplications may be selected. By so doing, a user may quickly and easilydetermine which applications to select based on their respective reportsand then select them through the user interface.

This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts forapplication reporting in an application-selectable user interface thatis further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary isnot intended to identify essential features of the claimed subjectmatter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of theclaimed subject matter. Techniques and/or apparatuses for applicationreporting in an application-selectable user interface are also referredto herein separately or in conjunction as the “techniques” as permittedby the context.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments for application reporting in an application-selectable userinterface are described with reference to the following drawings. Thesame numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like featuresand components:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system in which techniques for applicationreporting in an application-selectable user interface can beimplemented.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of the computing device of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example embodiment of the remote provider of FIG.1.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example embodiment of the report compiler of FIG.1.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method for application reporting in anapplication-selectable user interface.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example user interface having fifteen selectablelabels.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example presentation of a selected application inan immersive environment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a selectable label of FIG. 6 along with selectablesections reporting changes.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example presentation of a selected application ina windows-based environment.

FIG. 10 illustrates a pop-up window having content associated with achange to an application.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example device in which techniques forapplication reporting in an application-selectable user interface can beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

This document describes techniques and apparatuses for applicationreporting in an application-selectable user interface. These techniquesenable a user to see a report from an application that may or may not becurrently executing and to select this application. If the applicationis executing, the techniques present the application responsive to theselection. If the application is not already executing the techniquesfirst execute the application.

Assume, for example, that a user wishes to check what is new for herfifteen favorite applications. Assume that the user viewed four of theseapplications earlier during the day, but did not view the other eleven.Thus, some of these four applications may still be executing, thoughtthat is not required. These techniques present, in a user interface fromwhich these fifteen applications may be selected, reports for each ofthe applications, assuming any reports have arrived since the respectiveapplications where last selected.

By way of example, assume that reports have been received for two of thefour applications viewed earlier in the day. One of these applicationsis local to the user's computing device, namely an email application.The techniques report, in an application-selectable user interface, thateight emails have arrived since the user last used the emailapplication. The techniques also indicate some content associated withone or more of these emails, such as from whom they were received (e.g.,Suzy Brown, Sales.com, etc.).

Assume that the other of the two applications is a social-networkingwebsite and that a report has been received that indicates that a friendof the user has added an entry to her social-networking page. Thetechniques indicate this in the user interface, and may also presentcontent from the entry, such as “Bill Jones tagged you in a photo” alongwith a thumbnail image associated with Bill Jones (e.g., his picture).

Assume that a third application has received a report, this thirdapplication being a marketing website that has not recently been viewedby the user. The techniques report that this marketing website has a bigsale going on through tomorrow.

As this example illustrates, the techniques can provide a user interfacethrough which a user can view reports associated with multipleapplications and select to present those applications. Here the userinterface reports that a friend tagged the user, that a sale is on, andthat eight emails from various entities have been received. Furtherstill, the user interface shows that the other twelve applications havenothing new to report.

With all of this information at the user's fingertips, she may decidewhich application to select and which not to. She may select thesocial-networking website application to see the image in which she istagged, the marketing application to see more about the sale, the emailapplication to see the full content of one or more of the eight emails,or forgo selecting any of the applications. Thus, the user may decidethat none of these reports are interesting enough to select theapplications. In all of these cases the techniques permitted the user tomake quick, easy, and informed decisions about what applications toselect or not to select.

This is but one example of the many ways in which the techniques enableusers to see reports from, and select application through, a userinterface. Numerous other examples, as well as ways in which thetechniques operate, are described below.

This discussion proceeds to describe an example environment in which thetechniques may operate, methods performable by the techniques, and anexample apparatus below.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment 100 in which techniques forapplication reporting in an application-selectable user interface can beembodied. Environment 100 includes a computing device 102, remoteprovider 104, optional report compiler 106, and communication network108, which enables communication between these entities. In thisillustration, computing device 102 receives reports 110 from threesources, remote provider 104, report compiler 106, and an applicationexecuting on computing device 102 (this application is shown in FIG. 2).Reports 110 indicate what is new or of potential interest for theselectable applications, such as a change to an application's content orstatus (e.g., a new email, entry, or article, or that a software updateor expiration is approaching, to name just a few). Computing device 102presents user interface 112, which includes selectable labels forapplications and reports some or all of the information received inreports 110.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of computing device 102 of FIG.1, which is illustrated with six examples devices: a laptop computer102-1, a tablet computer 102-2, a smart phone 102-3, a set-top box102-4, a desktop computer 102-5, and a gaming device 102-6, though othercomputing devices and systems, such as servers and netbooks, may also beused.

Computing device 102 includes or has access to computer processor(s)202, computer-readable storage media 204 (media 204), and one or moredisplays 206, four examples of which are illustrated in FIG. 2. Media204 includes an operating system 208, reporter 210, and applications212, each of which may provide content 214.

Operating system 208 includes or has access to window-based environmentmodule 216 and/or immersive environment module 218. Applicationsselected through the techniques can be presented through a windows-basedor immersive environment, as well as others.

Windows-based environment module 216 presents applications andaccompanying content through windows having frames. These frames providecontrols through which to interact with an application and/or controlsenabling a user to move and size the window.

Immersive environment module 218 provides an environment by which a usermay view and interact with one or more of applications 212 andcorresponding content 214. In some embodiments, this environmentpresents content of, and enables interaction with, applications withlittle or no window frame and/or without a need for a user to manuallysize or position content. This environment can be, but is not requiredto be, hosted and/or surfaced without use of a typical desktopenvironment. Thus, in some cases immersive environment module 218presents an immersive environment that is not a window (even one withouta substantial frame) and precludes usage of desktop-like displays (e.g.,a taskbar). Further still, in some embodiments this immersiveenvironment is similar to an operating system in that it is notcloseable or capable of being un-installed. Examples of immersiveenvironments are provided below as part of describing the techniques,though they are not exhaustive or intended to limit the techniques.

Reporter 210 includes, has access to, or generates anapplication-selectable user interface 220, an example of which is shownat 112 in FIG. 1. Interface 220 includes or has access to presentationformats 222. Reporter 210 reports changes associated with one or more ofapplications 212 through interface 220. As noted above, reports 110 maybe received directly from one or more of applications 212, or anotherentity associated with one or more of applications 212, such as remoteprovider 104 or report compiler 106.

In some cases a report indicates which presentation format 222 isintended, in which case reporter 210 reports changes in the appropriateformat through interface 220. Presentation formats 222 can be eXtensibleStylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) in cases where reports 110are received in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). In such a case,reporting in interface 220 is presenting using Hyper-Text MarkupLanguage (HTML), though use of XSLT, XML, and HTML are optional, as arepresentation formats 222 in general.

FIG. 3 illustrates example embodiments of remote provider 104. Remoteprovider 104 is shown as a singular entity for visual brevity, thoughmultiple remote providers are also contemplated herein. Remote provider104 includes or has to access to provider processor(s) 302 and providercomputer-readable storage media 304 (media 304). Media 304 includesreport generator 306 and content provider 308.

Report generator 306 is capable of providing one or more reports 110 tocomputing device 102, either directly or indirectly through reportcompiler 106. In some embodiments, reports 110 include informationuseful for indicating a change, presenting content associated with thechange, or visiting the application (e.g., with universal resourcelocators (URLs)).

Report generator 306 may act responsive to reporter 210, such as arequest from reporter 210 for reports 110, though report generator 306may also act to periodically send, or consistently make available, newand/or interesting content or data as it become available. Reportgenerator 306 may indicate what is new since a user last selected aparticular application, though it may also simply provide reports 110,with which reporter 210 may instead determine what is or is not new.

Content provider 308 provides content, such as content 214 associatedwith application 212. Content provider 308 may act in conjunction withreport generator 306, such as to provide content 214 to report generator306, which report generator 306 then provides a portion of (or sometimesall of) in report 110.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example embodiment of report compiler 106. Reportcompiler 106 is shown as a singular entity for visual brevity, thoughmultiple compilers may also be used. Report compiler 106 includes or hasto access to compiler processor(s) 402 and compiler computer-readablestorage media 404 (media 404). Media 404 includes compiling module 406,which is capable of receiving and compiling reports 110 from one or moresources, such as report provider 104. Compiling module 406 may receivereports for later provision to computing device 102, such asperiodically or when computing device 102 indicates that it is on.Compiling module 406 may determine which changes are new since aparticular user last viewed content from an application and providethose of the reports 110 indicating these changes.

Ways in which entities of FIGS. 1-4 act and interact are set forth ingreater detail below. The entities illustrated for computing device 102,remote provider 104, or report compiler 106, respectively, can beseparate or integrated.

Example Methods

FIG. 5 depicts a method 500 for application reporting in anapplication-selectable user interface. In portions of the followingdiscussion reference may be made to environment 100 of FIG. 1 and asdetailed in FIGS. 2-4, reference to which is made for example only.

Block 502 presents a user interface having multiple, selectable labelsassociated with multiple applications, respectively. One of the multipleselectable labels reports a change associated with the application towhich the selectable label is associated, though multiple changes formultiple applications or the same application may also be reported.Reporting of one or more changes is not required (e.g., at some timesnone of the applications will have a change to report).

By way of example, consider a case where reporter 210 of FIG. 2 presentsa user interface 600 shown in FIG. 6. This user interface 600 is but oneof many types of user interfaces contemplated by user interface 220 ofFIG. 2, including a user interface having a single label. User interface600 includes fifteen selectable labels, twelve of them relatively largeand three relatively small.

This example user interface 600 reports changes to eleven of the twelvelarger labels and one of the three small labels, though any variation ofsuch a presentation is contemplated, such as changes to all or none ofthe selectable labels. Note that these changes, even if all of thesechanges were already received at the time a user selects to view userinterface 600, may be presented to each of the various labels andportions of the labels progressively. This progressive alteration of thelabels can make user interface 600 look animated. Thus, the changes tothe labels are not necessarily made all at once.

Further, in cases where multiple changes for an application are known,reporter 210 may present the newest of the changes or rotate throughthese changes. Reporter 210 may rotate through changes to maintain a“live” feel to user interface 600 or responsive to activity orinactivity with a label. Inactively with a label may indicate that thecurrently-indicated change is not of interest to a user. As another ofthe changes may be of more interest, the most-recent change may berotated off of a label and an older (but still new) change rotated on tothe label.

Consider first selectable label 602, which is shown expanded in FIG. 6.This selectable label 602 is associated with one of applications 212 ofFIG. 2, namely a “News” application. As shown, selectable label 602reports a change associated with this application 212 within selectablelabel 602, the change relative to a prior viewing, selection, orlaunching of this application 212 by a user associated with computingdevice 102.

Assume that a user viewed the News application at 9 am and, on viewinguser interface 600, is presented with selectable label 602 reporting achange to the News application since 9 am (at 3 pm the same day, forexample). Here the change is a new article concerning a weathersatellite that has been damaged by a meteor and may crash to earth.Portions of content associated with the change (the change being the newarticle) are shown in selectable label 602. These portions each reportthe change by indicating that a new article is now available, here withan image 604 of a satellite, a title of the article at 606, and a firstsentence of the article at 608.

Consider also three other example selectable labels, small selectablelabels 610 and 612, and another of the large selectable labels 614.Small selectable label 610 reports a change to an application associatedwith this label, namely the “ASN” application. Label 610 reports achange with a change indicator 616 marked as “*”, though this indicator616 does not indicate how many changes or any content associated withthat change. This abbreviated report on a change may be desirable whenthe application associated with the label is not generally important tothe user, or changes are often of a similar type and thus presentingcontent of the change is not meaningful, or simply because the userdesires it.

Small selectable label 612, on the other hand, does not report anychanges. This non-reporting provides the user with valuable information,namely that the user need not select label 612 to see something new forthe “Duke” application, as no changes exist since the user last visitedthe application.

Large selectable label 614 also does not report any changes, thus alsoproviding the user with valuable information concerning changes (or lackthereof) for the “CSI” application.

As described, reporter 210 enables selection of applications and reportschanges to those applications. Reporter 210 may also enable differentselections through different areas of a label. Consider again label 602.Here reporter 210 enables selection through application-identifying area618 and reporting area 620. This application-identifying area 618 showsan application-selected identifier for the “News” application at 622,namely “News” in a particular font and color (color not shown). Reporter210 enables a selection made to this application-identifying area 618 topresent the “News” application at a default or prior-viewed setting,such as a home page or a last-viewed page of content. Thus, on selectionof application-identifying area 618, reporter 210 may refrain frompresenting content associated with the reported change.

Reporter 210 enables a selection made to reporting area 620 to presentthe “News” application with the change, such as presenting contentassociated with the change, here opening a webpage at a universalresource locator (URL) associated with the content change. In such acase, reporter 210 presents the News application having the article thatwas shown in part in reporting area 620.

Some labels may indicate multiple changes, such as reporting (with someassociated content) the two newest entries to a social-networkingwebsite or emails received since the user last viewed an emailapplication. In such a case, reporter 210 enables selection to eachsection reporting the change to present the associated application withcontent associated with that change, such as to open one of multipleemails reported.

By way of review, reporter 210 can report changes to variousapplications responsive to received reports, such as reports 110 of FIG.1, which can be received one-at-a-time, after compiling into batches,and/or from various sources. These reports 110 can be received orretrieved periodically, on selecting to display user interface 220,and/or in real time. User interface 600, for example, may alterselectable labels as a user views it due to reports coming in and beingreported. Thus, reporter 210 may act to actively update reporting forapplications in a user interface through which a user can selectapplications.

Reporter 210 may determine which reports 110 indicate changes to anapplication since the user last viewed or interacted with theapplication, though in some other cases an entity providing the reportinstead determines this (e.g., remote provider 104, report compiler 106,or application 212).

Further, in some embodiments reporter 210 receives reports along with anindication of a presentation format in which the reports are preferredto be presented. This presentation format preference may be selected byan entity associated with the respective application, such as asocial-networking server associated with a social-networkingapplication, or based on user preference. Various examples ofpresentation formats 222 are illustrated in FIG. 6. Large selectablelabel 602, for example, presents only a most-recent change along withthree portions of content for that change. Small selectable label 610,conversely, presents only a change indicator 616 with no content.

Returning to method 500, block 504 receives selection of one of themultiple, selectable labels, such as a label reporting a change. Theselection received can be to various areas (or sections of areas) of aselectable label, responsive to which reporter 210 presents theapplication associated with the selectable label, though how presentedmay vary based on which area is selected. As noted, the applicationassociated with a selectable label may or may not be executing.Consider, for example, large selectable label 602 and another largeselectable label 622. Label 602 is associated with a “News” applicationof applications 212 of FIG. 2. Label 622 is associated with an emailapplication of applications 212. For this example, assume that the Newsapplication is not executing and that reports are received from a remoteentity associated with the News application, such as remote provider104. Assume also that the email application is local to computing device102 and is executing. Reports 110 for the email application are receivedby reporter 210 direct from the email application.

Continuing the ongoing embodiment, assume that reporter 210 receives aselection to application-identifying area 618, such as through a mouseselector or a gesture via a touch-screen displaying user interface 600,such as one of displays 206 shown in FIG. 2.

Block 506 presents the application associated with the selected labeland/or content associated with a change reported in the selected label.When block 506 presents the application, it does so in a manner in whichthe application may be interacted with, e.g., in an immersive orwindows-based environment. This presentation may also or instead presentcontent associated with a reported change but not necessarily theapplication itself as described in further detail below.

This presentation may include launching the application and thenpresenting it, such as in a window via windows-based environment module216 or in an immersive environment via immersive environment module 218,both of FIG. 2. If the application is already executing, a launch is notneeded. Responsive to receiving a selection of a selected label, thetechniques may provide a visual indication of the selection, such as toanimate the selected portion of the label. By so doing, the techniquesreinforce the type of selection.

Concluding the ongoing embodiment, reporter 210 presents the Newsapplication in response to selection of selectable label 602, here toapplication-identifying area 618. This presentation includes launchingthe News application, as it was not executing at selection. As noted,reporter 210 may present and/or launch an application through aninstruction to another entity, such as the above-mentioned modules 216or 218.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example presentation of the News application in animmersive environment 700. Because application-identifying area 618 wasselected, a default presentation (here a home page) for the Newsapplication is shown. This home page is shown at 702 and includesvarious headlines 704 for selection, one of which is the most-recentarticle also shown at 606 in FIG. 6. While this title is shown, the homepage is presented rather than a webpage having a full representation ofthe content or otherwise devoted to the article, which would otherwisebe presented had the selection been made to reporting area 620.

By way of another example, consider a case where selection is receivedat block 504 through large selectable label 622 of FIG. 6, which isexpanded for clarity in FIG. 8. Label 622 is shown having anapplication-identifying area 802 and a reporting area 804. Reportingarea 804 includes four selectable sections reporting changes, sections806, 808, 810, and 812. Each of selectable sections 806, 808, and 810reports content associated with a change, here each a sender and asubject line of an email. Section 812 reports five changes, here thatfive other emails have also been received since the email applicationwas last viewed by the user. In this example, selection is received tosection 808 through a gesture 814 made to a touch screen.

Reporter 210, at block 506, presents the selected email application andcontent of the email associated with the selection. Here the applicationis currently executing, therefore reporter 210 does not launch the emailapplication. Presentation of the email application and the changereported, rather than a home or default presentation, is shown in FIG. 9at 902 in a window 904. Note that reporter 210 may cause thispresentation in a window superimposed over the application-selectableuser interface or hide the user interface and present the window in adifferent environment. Here reporter 210 hides the user interface andpresents the email application at 902 showing content associated withthe selection received at 906.

In still another example, consider again FIG. 8. In some cases selectionmade to a selectable label indicating a change may present contentassociated with that change. This presentation may be commensurate withpresentation of the application as described above. In some other cases,the content is shown without hiding the user interface and/or withoutpresenting the application in a conventional manner. Assume, for theselection 814 of FIG. 8, that reporter 210, rather than presenting theemail application and the content, instead presents content associatedwith the change on its own. In this case, more or all of the contentassociated with that change is shown. Assume, for example, that most orall of the content associated with a new email from Sue was received inone of the reports 110. Reporter 210 may present the rest of thiscontent, such as within or superimposed over user interface 600.

An example of this is shown in FIG. 10, which shows a pop-up window 1002having more content associated with a reported change. This may also beused to expand the “5 More Emails” shown at section 812 in FIG. 8 toshow, for example, the sender and subject lines for those emails. Thismay be used to show some content associated with a change for which nocontent is currently shown, such as change indicator 616 of FIG. 6. Thisalternative operation of block 506 permits a user to select to see morecontent associated with a change, which in some cases is enough for theuser to forgo selecting the application generally.

The preceding discussion describes methods for application reporting inan application-selectable user interface. These methods are shown assets of blocks that specify operations performed but are not necessarilylimited to the order shown for performing the operations by therespective blocks.

Aspects of these methods may be implemented in hardware (e.g., fixedlogic circuitry), firmware, software, manual processing, or anycombination thereof. A software implementation represents program codethat performs specified tasks when executed by a computer processor. Theexample methods may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, which can include software,applications, routines, programs, objects, components, data structures,procedures, modules, functions, and the like. The program code can bestored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, both localand/or remote to a computer processor. The methods may also be practicedin a distributed computing environment by multiple computing devices.

These techniques may be embodied on one or more of the entities shown inenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 (and as detailed in FIGS. 2-4) and/or exampledevice 1100 described below, which may be further divided, combined, andso on. Thus, environment 100 and/or device 1100 illustrate some of manypossible systems or apparatuses capable of employing the describedtechniques. The entities of environment 100 and/or device 1100 generallyrepresent software, firmware, hardware, whole devices or networks, or acombination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, forinstance, the entities (e.g., reporter 210 of FIG. 2, report generator306 of FIG. 3, and compiling module 406 of FIG. 4) represent programcode that performs specified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g.,processor(s) 202, 302, and 402, respectively). The program code can bestored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, such ascomputer-readable storage media 204, 304, or 404 or computer-readablemedia 1114 of FIG. 11. The features and techniques described herein areplatform-independent, meaning that they may be implemented on a varietyof commercial computing platforms having a variety of processors.

Example Apparatus

FIG. 11 illustrates an apparatus having various components, here as partof an example device 1100, which can be implemented as any type ofclient, server, and/or computing device as described with reference tothe previous FIGS. 1-10 to implement techniques for applicationreporting in an application-selectable user interface. In embodiments,device 1100 can be implemented as one or a combination of a wired and/orwireless device, as a form of television client device (e.g., televisionset-top box, digital video recorder (DVR), etc.), consumer device,computer device, server device, portable computer device, user device,communication device, video processing and/or rendering device,appliance device, gaming device, electronic device, and/or as anothertype of device. Device 1100 may also be associated with a user (e.g., aperson) and/or an entity that operates the device such that a devicedescribes logical devices that include users, software, firmware, and/ora combination of devices.

Device 1100 includes communication devices 1102 that enable wired and/orwireless communication of device data 1104 (e.g., received data, datathat is being received, data scheduled for broadcast, data packets ofthe data, etc.). The device data 1104 or other device content caninclude configuration settings of the device, media content stored onthe device, and/or information associated with a user of the device.Media content stored on device 1100 can include any type of audio,video, and/or image data. Device 1100 includes one or more data inputs1106 via which any type of data, media content, and/or inputs can bereceived, such as user-selectable inputs, messages, music, televisionmedia content, recorded video content, and any other type of audio,video, and/or image data received from any content and/or data source.

Device 1100 also includes communication interfaces 1108, which can beimplemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallel interface, awireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem, and as anyother type of communication interface. The communication interfaces 1108provide a connection and/or communication links between device 1100 anda communication network by which other electronic, computing, andcommunication devices communicate data with device 1100.

Device 1100 includes one or more processors 1110 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like), which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 1100and to enable application reporting in an application-selectableinterface. Alternatively or in addition, device 1100 can be implementedwith any one or combination of hardware, firmware, or fixed logiccircuitry that is implemented in connection with processing and controlcircuits which are generally identified at 1112. Although not shown,device 1100 can include a system bus or data transfer system thatcouples the various components within the device. A system bus caninclude any one or combination of different bus structures, such as amemory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a universal serialbus, and/or a processor or local bus that utilizes any of a variety ofbus architectures.

Device 1100 also includes computer-readable storage media 1114, such asone or more memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitorydata storage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission), examplesof which include random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g.,any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM,EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. A disk storage device may beimplemented as any type of magnetic or optical storage device, such as ahard disk drive, a recordable and/or rewriteable compact disc (CD), anytype of a digital versatile disc (DVD), and the like. Device 1100 canalso include a mass storage media device 1116.

Computer-readable storage media 1114 provides data storage mechanisms tostore the device data 1104, as well as various device applications 1118and any other types of information and/or data related to operationalaspects of device 1100. For example, an operating system 1120 can bemaintained as a computer application with the computer-readable storagemedia 1114 and executed on processors 1110. The device applications 1118may include a device manager, such as any form of a control application,software application, signal-processing and control module, code that isnative to a particular device, a hardware abstraction layer for aparticular device, and so on.

The device applications 1118 also include any system components ormodules to implement techniques for application reporting in anapplication-selectable user interface. In this example, the deviceapplications 1118 can include reporter 210 and applications 212.

CONCLUSION

Although embodiments of techniques and apparatuses for applicationreporting in an application-selectable user interface have beendescribed in language specific to features and/or methods, it is to beunderstood that the subject of the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or methods described. Rather, thespecific features and methods are disclosed as example implementationsfor application reporting in an application-selectable user interface.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing device comprising: one or morecomputer processors; and one or more computer-readable storage mediahaving instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by theone or more computer processors, perform operations comprising:receiving a report having a content change associated with anapplication along with an indication of a presentation format; andpresenting, within a selectable label associated with but not generatedby the application and in the presentation format, content associatedwith the content change associated with the application.
 2. A computingdevice as described in claim 1, further comprising, prior to receivingthe report, enabling selection of multiple presentation formats.
 3. Acomputing device as described in claim 2, further comprising determiningthe presentation format from the multiple presentation formats based onthe indication.
 4. A computing device as described in claim 1, whereinthe report includes an image or image locator for presentation withinthe selectable label and according to the presentation format.
 5. Acomputing device as described in claim 1, wherein the report includestext for presentation within the selectable label.
 6. A computing deviceas described in claim 5, wherein presenting the content presents thetext at an area within the selectable label indicated by thepresentation format.
 7. A computing device as described in claim 1,wherein the report includes a universal resource locator (URL) for thecontent and further comprising, prior to presenting the content,retrieving the content using the URL.
 8. A computing device as describedin claim 1, further comprising: enabling selection, through theselectable label, to present other content associated with anothercontent change to the application; and responsive to selection,presenting the other content associated with the other content change tothe application.
 9. A computing device as described in claim 8, whereinpresenting the other content presents the other content within theselectable label and according to the presentation format.
 10. Acomputing device as described in claim 8, wherein presenting the othercontent presents the other content in another interface.
 11. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: receiving an extensible markuplanguage (XML) report having: an indication of a presentation format,and a universal resource locator (URL) at which an image can beretrieved, or text; determining an area of a selectable label to presentthe image or the text based on the presentation format indicated in theXML report; and presenting, within the selectable label associated withan application but not generated by the application, the image or thetext at the area.
 12. A computer-implemented method as described inclaim 11, wherein the XML report includes the URL and further comprisingretrieving the image using the URL.
 13. A computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 12, wherein the XML report includes the text and thepresenting presents the image and the text progressively and atdifferent times.
 14. A computer-implemented method as described in claim12, wherein receiving the XML report is received from an entityassociated with the application, the entity remote from a computingdevice on which the presenting is performed and retrieving the imageretrieves the image from a source remote from the computing device. 15.A computer-implemented method as described in claim 11, wherein thepresenting transforms the XML report into hypertext machine language(HTML) using an extensible stylesheet language transformation (XSLT)associated with the presentation format.
 16. A computer-implementedmethod as described in claim 11, wherein: the XML report includes theURL and the text and further includes a second URL at which a secondimage can be retrieved and second text; and retrieving the second imageand the second text based on the XML report.
 17. A computer-implementedmethod comprising: receiving multiple reports having multiple respectivecontent changes associated with respective applications, a first reportof the multiple reports having a first presentation format and a secondreport of the multiple reports having a second presentation format, thefirst and second presentation formats being different; and presenting anapplication-selectable user interface having multiple selectable labels;presenting, within a first of the selectable labels and in the firstpresentation format, first content associated with a first of thecontent changes; and presenting, within a second of the selectablelabels and in the second presentation format, second content associatedwith a second of the content changes.
 18. A computer-implemented methodas described in claim 17, wherein the first presentation format presentstext and an image indicated in the first report and the secondpresentation format presents only text or only an image indicated in thesecond report.
 19. A computer-implemented method as described in claim17, wherein the first presentation format presents multiple contentchanges from multiple reports associated with the first application, themultiple content changes presented at on a rotating basis in the firstof the selectable labels.
 20. A computer-implemented method as describedin claim 17, wherein the first presentation format presents multiplecontent changes from multiple reports associated with the firstapplication, the multiple content changes presented at once within thefirst of the selectable labels.